Ways To Live In Direct Opposition To Capitalism

Ways to Live in Direct Opposition to Capitalism

I am by no means an expert in any of these things I’m gonna talk about, so keep that in mind! I am just making a compilation of things I know of that we can do to lessen the stranglehold the capitalist lifestyle has on us while enriching our lives, our surroundings, and the lives of others. Please add anything I miss or correct anything I may be getting wrong! Anyway here goes!

Use what you have, fix what’s you can, make what you can, accept from others, thrift what you can, and finally purchase as a last resort.

This is advice I have seen float around here a couple of times that can apply to a lot of things including clothing, furniture, food, and more besides. It’s meant to be done roughly in that order as it applies to what you’re wanting/needing/doing. It’s about preventing waste, promoting self-capability, having a heightened reliance on your community, and consciously rejecting the ingrained habit many of us have to just purchase things or services.

Here’s where you can read about growing an indoor garden!

Here’s where you can read about sewing things yourself!

Here’s an online site for giving and receiving items for free!

Here is where you can find a local Mutual Aid to get things from, learn skills from, give do, volunteer for, etc. (in the U.S.)

Be politically active! (from a U.S. perspective)

Vote for every election. Know your representatives and those who will be competing in the next election. Vote without ignorance and without falling for unfounded claims. While operating within the system that actively oppresses us will not bring about the future we want, it can serve as damage control (preventing worse candidates from taking office) and it can potentially create a national atmosphere more open to change.

Here’s a good article about getting more involved in the U.S. political process.

Here’s a site that will show you how to register to vote, when and where elections are held, and more!

Here’s good advice on finding protests in your city!

Here’s some readings on unionizing! It’s your legal right to unionize!

Here’s a more user friendly site for learning about unions!

Be active within your community!

Developing strong, motivated, capable, knowledgeable, and inclusive communities is the ultimate way to combat the relentless and bleak present and future. When you’ve worked on the things above and have gotten good at it (or even if you haven’t gotten good at it yet), start spreading what you know and what you can do with others!

Give your neighbors, coworkers, and friends some of the vegetables you’ve grown.

Invite your community members to volunteer events.

Talk to folks about how to vote, when you’re doing it, etc.

Take part in Mutual Aids to teach what you’ve learned or whatever you may be an expert in! Invite neighbors, friends, and coworkers when you take part in the Mutual Aid!

Accept your community. Take them for who and what they are. Discrimination is the enemy of cooperation. You have much more in common with everyone in your community than a single billionaire or corporation. We’re all passengers on this spaceship earth.

Do it one step at a time!

Obviously we can’t do all of these things at once. Do what you can when you can, and you’ll start to notice real change in your life!

Our online communities where we talk about our visions and hopes are fantastic, but they have little impact if we don’t actually get up and do the real work that change requires.

Want to be better, and keep hope for the future!

Harbor and nourish that desire to be a better person and to be the change you want to see in the world. You need to be hungry for a better future if you plan to make it through the rough times when everything feels pointless and without hope. Reach out to others when you’re down, and be someone others can lean on when their lives get hard.

That’s it! Please interact with this, spread it to others, and add your own thoughts and ideas! It’s important that we do the real work to get the change we crave!

If you were someone who was anti-Ace during Ace Discourse and anti-Neopronouns/Xenogenders during Neo/Xeno Discourse and anti-Nonbinary during Nonbinary Discourse, but you've now accepted those things, except now you're Anti-Bi Lesbian, then you never learned why what you were doing was wrong and simply followed the crowd.

You still have internalized phobias that you never addressed, you still have issues regarding controlling other people's queer experiences, and until you actually and genuinely sit back and realize WHY being Anti-Ace, Anti-Neos/Xenos, Anti-Nonbinary etc. Was wrong, you are always going to be the bigot in the community. Learn self introspection, learn why you continued to be against queer identities you didn't understand, or you will always find yourself on the wrong side of the goalpost, and you will never grow.

Take a second to think about an argumentative sentence you've used and replace "bi lesbian" with any other queer identity you used to hate and you'll realize that at the root of it all, it's the same queerphobia but with a new subject to target.

This is a friendly reminder that none disabled people often do benefit from the same accommodations disabled people benefit from.

quick are you mythologizing sex again? are you making it seem like a special category of human behavior rather than just a thing people do? are you forgetting that it can be silly or fun or simply pedestrian? are you forgetting that it requires conversation and negotiation just like every other human activity that involves other people?

You will never identify in a way that pleases everybody.

No one ever will.

The whole point of identifying with a label or community is to say "this resonates with me and my experiences, so this is the language I will use to describe myself" and everyone else will have their own, different, reasoning for why it also resonates with them. And that's beautiful because the human experience transcends the language we use to describe ourselves. It's bigger than our words because words fail constantly.

But because of that - your reasoning for identifying with or as something will always be wrong in the eyes of at least one other person or group of people. Even if you play it by The Rules as much as possible because The Rules are made up and fluid and subject to change at a moments notice.

You will always be doing something "wrong" in the eyes of someone else so stop focusing on how to be "right" (unattainable) and focus instead on what makes you happiest and most comfortable (attainable).

you can read the study here